While the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica’s southwest is remote and wild, the Nicoya Peninsula in the northwest is rather more developed as a tourist destination. Nevertheless Pacific waves still pound its shores and there are quiet corners to be found. After all, ‘developed’ in Costa Rica is a relative term!
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Now every field is clothed with grass, and every tree with leaves; now the woods put forth their blossoms, and the year assumes its gay attire. This quote from Virgil, who lived in the first century BCE, is a reminder that spring has inspired writers throughout the centuries. I wonder if it’s the most written-about season of all?
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Selvatura Park is one of several private concerns in the Monteverde area that offer various experiences to explore the cloud forest. While not offering quite the pristine ‘back to nature’ experience we found at the other reserves we visited, the Children’s Eternal Rainforest and the Santa Elena Reserve, it still has a sense of wilderness in places. And as we were to discover, it has its share of wonders.
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Would you name a place after a notorious pirate who had ransacked your coastline and hid out here, evading capture? To our surprise we discovered that is exactly what happened here in the south west of Costa Rica; Bahia Drake is named for Sir Francis Drake.
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Sometimes people say to me, you’ve travelled to so many places, there can’t be anywhere left that you want to visit. How wrong they are! The world is full of so many amazing sights and there is always somewhere new to tantalise and intrigue.
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Early on our first morning on Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula, in the far south west of the country, we boarded the small boat that was to take us and seven other guests of the Aguila de Osa lodge to the nearby national park, Corcovado. This is primary rainforest, never touched and preserved intact.
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My visit to Ancona was something of a happy accident. My friend and I were propelled here by convenience, but found an atmospheric old city worthy of a visit in its own right. The reason for our stay was simply that I had to catch a train to Milan the following morning and wanted to be near the station. A budget hotel just across the road made a convenient base for an early start, but we made sure we arrived in good time the previous day so that we could explore the city.
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Chowara is a small fishing community in Kerala. While tourism has come to the area, bringing visitors from elsewhere in India and further afield, it remains unspoiled and still focused on that traditional mainstay of its economy, the fish. Our hotel lay right next to the village, so it was easy one morning to forsake the lure of the pool and take a stroll with our cameras.
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On a chilly January day in London I am inevitably dreaming of warmer climes. A place where the sun is shining; where a stroll through city streets delivers colour, warmth, a bit of excitement and a lot of interest.
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The most intriguing gardens to explore often feel like a series of rooms, each with a distinctive style of decoration. We wander from area to area, never knowing what might be around the next corner. We get glimpses through trees and over hedges, and sometimes wider views that draw us on, ever eager to see more. Such are the gardens of the Real Alcázar of Seville.
